Pages

Monday, February 25, 2013

God and Prepositions — and Me

I understand my life to be a fellowship “with” God, a partnership in a “father and son” way. There is a saying, attributed to John Wesley, that God does not do anything in the world except in answer to prayer. I believe that is true. I see prayer as a very real partnership with God.

I am “from” God — He is the source of my being, the source of my supply, the source of every good thing in my life.

And I am “for” God. Not driven, but led at His pleasure. I have given up the idea of doing “great things” for God — I don’t trust my judgment anymore about what is “great.” I am learning to be content with doing what God leads me to do. He knows what He wants me to do, and I believe that will actually end up being the greatest thing I can do, whether or not it appears that way to me at the start. After years of ministry, I have learned that it is often the small things, things I don’t even remember doing or saying, that have the greatest effect.

Jesus did only those things that pleased the Father, did only what He saw the Father doing, and said only what He heard the Father saying. That is what I seek, and that is how I would understand “under” God.

“Over” God sounds manipulative and presumptuous.

Along with being “in” God, there is also God “in” me. Both are important realizations. Sounds a bit more intimate than just “with.”

In John 1:1, we have “and the Word was with God.” The Greek word for “with” here is pros, which can mean “toward.” I think of Jesus and the Father pressed toward each other, conspiring with each other about what was to take place, and a plan was conceived. I think of prayer in a similar way, as God and me plotting something together.